What Does 2 Samuel 14:20 Mean?
To turn this matter's face around, your servant Joab has done this, and my lord is wise according to the wisdom of a messenger of God, to perceive all that is in the earth.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
To fetch about this form of speech hath thy servant Joab done this thing: and my lord is wise, according to the wisdom of an angel of God, to know all things that are in the earth.THE KEY
The same דָּבָר (davar, word/matter) is both the matter Joab turns and the thing he does: the speech is inside the maneuver.
THE MEANING
A carefully shaped account can turn the face of a matter. Praise for David’s discernment accompanies Joab’s maneuver, showing how a compliment can help carry a story toward a desired shape. The words reveal that how a matter is presented is part of what is happening.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse unsettles the belief that praise of someone’s discernment is always neutral: here, the compliment serves the maneuver.
THE ROOT
דָּבָר
davar
GROWS FROM
דבר
Speak; word, matter, or thing.
The KJV renders these appearances as “form of speech” and “thing,” while Hebrew repeats דָּבָר (davar, word/matter). The utterance belongs to the matter being turned; it does not merely describe the maneuver from outside it.
ALSO GROWS
dibber: He spoke.
דִּבֵּר
Speech grows from the same root as the matter Joab acts upon.
devarim: Words or matters.
דְּבָרִים
This plural preserves the root’s joined sense of words and things.
סַבֵּב
sabbēv
GROWS FROM
סבב
Turn, go around, or encircle.
“turn around” in this verse is sabbēv. The phrase describes turning the face of the matter, giving “fetch about” the sense of changing its presentation. The root can also describe encircling, so the turn is a change in how the matter is faced and seen.
ALSO GROWS
saviv: Around; all around.
סָבִיב
The sense of turning around illuminates the redirected face of the matter.
sevivot: Surroundings; things around.
סְבִיבוֹת
The root’s circular sense connects changing a matter’s angle with changing what surrounds it.
לָדַעַת
lada'at
GROWS FROM
ידע
Know, recognize, or perceive through relation and encounter.
“perceive” in this verse is lada'at. This root can describe knowing through recognition, not only possessing a store of facts. That depth of knowing becomes part of the praise that helps turn the matter.
ALSO GROWS
da'at: Knowledge; knowing.
דַּעַת
It carries the same root into the noun for knowing.
moda: Acquaintance; kinsman.
מוֹדָע
Its sense of acquaintance shows the root’s connection to knowing through relationship.
THE PATTERN
Flattering speech can turn a matter by making a maneuver sound like respect for discernment.
A man who smooths over his neighbor spreads a net for his steps.They speak emptiness, each one with his neighbor; with smooth lips, with two hearts, they speak.And they sent to him their disciples with the Herodians, saying, Teacher, we know that you are true, and you teach the way of God in truth, and you care for no one, for you do not look at the face of men.THE THREAD
You are my hiding place. You guard me from the narrow place, and you circle me with songs of escape. Selah.The verb behind “compass me about” shares סבב (sabab, turn/encircle) with the phrase rendered “fetch about” here. In 2 Samuel the turn changes the matter’s face; in the psalm the same root encircles the speaker with songs of deliverance.
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